Among the NFL regular season games, Thursday, Sunday and Monday night games are undoubtedly the top priority.
Except for the last week of the regular season, which is the key moment to determine playoff tickets, all games start at the same time in order to avoid tacit understanding of the ball. At other times, night games are the highlight, especially Thursday night games, which have explosive ratings. The popularity of the game is astonishing, and it is generally considered to be the most intense and popular game every week.
But in fact, this is nothing more than a publicity stunt by the league.
Because, according to the agreement reached by the thirty-two teams in the league, during the sixteen weeks of the regular season - not counting the last week, every team needs to appear on the night game live broadcast at least once.
The reason is simple. The nationally broadcast night game stage is crucial for business promotion, brand reputation, sponsorship support, etc. Every team is going to fight hard.
Of course, when the league arranges live broadcasts of night games, relevant factors such as team strength, season status, matchup against Sparks, rivalry history, fan support, etc. are bound to be taken into consideration, such as the annual "Steel Crows War"-Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens, it's all in the spotlight.
Naturally, a small number of special teams can be on the night game stage at least twice throughout the season, which is also very normal.
Despite this, the arrangement of the night games must still take into account the balance of the thirty-two teams. Therefore, night games may also involve novices pecking each other.
However, exposure is important, but the coaching team does not like live broadcasts of night games, which will disrupt the rhythm of training arrangements and tactical arrangements.
First, there is too much attention, too much pressure, and the media is causing trouble. Players are often prone to performing abnormally, either being overly nervous, overexcited, or being harassed, especially rookie players. The stage of night games is a completely different level of test.
The league has an official statistic: the on-the-spot performance data of each player in nationally broadcast and non-nationally broadcast games. As a result, we can find that a certain group of players are vigorous and perform well when not live broadcasting; but when they are live broadcasting, they are a mess and terrible. It's like comparing home and away games.
Second, the preparation rhythm is disordered, especially Monday night games and Thursday night games.
Monday night games, this means that after the game, there is only four days to prepare for the next game; Thursday night games, this means that after the last game, there are only three days to make adjustments. . The entire training cycle is completely different.
However, coaches and players have no right to resist. For the sake of the team's interests and their own "money prospects", night games are important stages that cannot be missed.
Before the start of the regular season every year, the league will send out a team of experts to evaluate the offseason preparations of the 32 teams, and then list a team strength matchup table for the new season, and then based on the strength of the team , team status, star players, historical matchup information, etc., arrange the schedule for the entire season.
The San Francisco 49ers, who have missed the playoffs for eight consecutive years, are still not favored in the evaluation before this year's regular season. What's more, the NFC West has been weak for a long time. Last year, the Seattle Seahawks actually won less and lost more. Entering the playoffs with a good record, he became the laughing stock of the entire league.
Therefore, the San Francisco 49ers do not have an advantage in this year's night game arrangement. But with a strong and deep historical background, they still arranged a Thursday night game and a Monday night game. Fortunately, these two games are not in the second week of the regular season, which is a good thing for Lu Ke as a rookie.
Lu Ke still has not adapted to the pace of NFL games. Not only the intensity of each game, but also the preparation rules for each week's games. Everything is brand new and fresh. He needs time to adapt, especially Now the physical fitness is still unable to complete a long-term confrontation.
In the second week of the regular season, the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys is still not the focus of this week and is scheduled to be held at the same time on Sunday afternoon.
The team has a collective day off on Monday.
However, Lu Ke had no time to rest and had to start reading the tactical manual again. At the same time, Lu Ke also contacted scout Adam Klein and found game videos of Jim Harbaugh when he was the coach of Stanford University, as well as Payton- Manning's career highlights. Not to enjoy the game, but to study on-field tactics.
The team has a partial day off on Tuesday.
The so-called partial holiday, according to official regulations, this day is still a holiday, but players can come to the training base according to their own circumstances for relaxation training, body massage, or watching game videos.
Lu Ke did not go to the team's training base, but held a small training camp at home. He spent the whole day watching the Dallas Cowboys' game videos, including the first week of the regular season, four preseason games, and the entire season last year. Video.
In addition to the three living treasures of Logan, Marcus and Aldon, among this year’s rookie players, Kendall Hunter, Daniel Kilgore, Ronald Johnson ), Colin Jones, Bruce Miller and others also came over. To be precise, this is "rookie" training camp.
On Wednesday, the team held a non-compulsory formal training session.
This day is still not a mandatory training day, and players can declare it themselves. However, most players will arrive at the training base and start recovery training, relaxation training, etc.; at other times, they can meet with the offensive and defensive coaches and continue to watch game videos.
Generally speaking, the coaching team's game preparation starts on Tuesday; and the players' game preparation starts on Wednesday. However, strictly speaking, the entire team's game preparations start on Thursday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are three days. The time schedule for each day is extremely strict, and the team must act collectively.
Early on Wednesday morning, Lu Ke drove to the training base early. Yesterday's small training camp was really fruitful.
Although everyone is a rookie player, they have different university backgrounds, different positions on the field, and different interpretations of the game. As the brains of the team, Lu Ke carefully listens to and absorbs different opinions, gradually opens his horizons, and receives countless information. . Today, Lu Ke is going to have a discussion with the quarterback coach and offensive coach, trying to clarify his thoughts and digest all the knowledge into his own.
Not only that, on Monday, Lu Ke not only successfully completed two quarterback training skill packages and successfully received the rewards; he also started daily training tasks again, entering the strength training mode bit by bit; in addition, Lu Ke There is also a need to adapt to the current passing power.
Although the throwing power is still 79 points, there is no change; but the strength has become 61 points, the explosive power has become 70 points, and more importantly, the physical fitness has also become 70 points. This kind of Lu Ke needs time to adapt to the reborn changes and growth. At the same time, his passing movements and finger control also need to be adjusted accordingly.
The past two days have been extremely busy; it is foreseeable that it will still be the same today. Tomorrow is Thursday, and the team will officially enter preparations for the second game. He needs to get into shape in advance.
Arriving at the parking lot skillfully, Lu Ke unexpectedly discovered that a car had already arrived in the parking lot. The time Lu Ke arrived at the training base today was slightly adjusted. Even so, it was still less than seven o'clock. There were actually players on the team who arrived earlier than him? This is really... strange.
Who on earth is it?
With this idea in mind, Lu Ke entered the locker room and saw Alex Smith who had just changed into training clothes.
In the blink of an eye, this is already the eighth week since Lu Ke joined the San Francisco 49ers, but this is the first time he and Alex have met.
Due to the injury, Alex had been running back and forth between the hospital and home in the past few weeks and did not come to the training base. In recent weeks, the injury has gradually recovered. Alex came to the training base, but it was exclusively used for the recovery of the injured. The training building is on the other side; Alex came to the training base twice during this period, but due to some strange combination of circumstances, the two never met. Until today.
Lu Ke was a little surprised.
Alex's reputation is really too loud. He was the No. 1 pick in the 2005 draft. Although, under his leadership, the San Francisco 49ers' record has never improved, and his performance can only be said to be average; but as of now So far, among all the players Lu Ke has met, Alex is the most famous, top-notch, and most experienced player.
What's more, both men are quarterbacks and direct competitors. By the way, Alex's Vondrick test is forty points.
The atmosphere paused for a moment, and then Alex took the initiative to say hello, "Hey, Lu Ke, right? I'm Alex." He walked forward and extended his right hand in a friendly manner, with a smile on his face. Smiling kindly, "I have heard before that you are a player who trains extremely hard. Now it seems that you are indeed well-deserved."
Lu Ke held Alex's right hand and smiled in return, "Welcome back. Is your injury okay?"
Alex looked down at his right leg and saw that he had strained his cruciate ligament. Such injuries can be major or minor. Many athletes have completely ruined their careers because of serious injuries to this part. But now judging from Alex's stance, the impact does not seem to be too big. "This is my first week back to formal training, so everything still needs to be observed slowly."
As he spoke, Alex raised his hands, crossed his index and middle fingers, and made a gesture of praying for good luck, "This is all I can do now." The relaxed words contained a little self-deprecation, without any Very humorous but approachable.
Lu Ke also made the same prayer gesture, showing a confident and firm smile, "For any professional athlete, injury is not a good thing. I hope you can truly recover and welcome you back to the game. Rejoin the competition with 100% attitude!”
